Hur vi och svensk rättspraxis ser på sexuella trakasserier

Sammanfattning: Sexual harassment is a global problem and it is not a new one, although it took until the 1970’s before it became an accepted concept. Sexual assault was one of the reported crimes, that had increased the most during 2016. The number of convicted sexual offences during 2015 had also increased, especially an increase in, among other things, sexual assault. There is a need of increased knowledge about what sexual harassment is about. In addition, more research about the motive behind sexual harassment, how sexual harassment is received and its effects, are needed. The purpose of this study was to investigate how sexual harassment is looked upon by a group of people via social media in comparison to how sexual harassment is defined according to Swedish case-law. Nine semi-structured interviews were performed, and analyzed with a narrative method and then problematized thru Swedish case-law in the discussion. The participants in this study regarded sexual harassment as an act against someone’s will. This could entail that someone made sexual acts (acted in a sexual way), took advantage of the others body, did not respect the others boundaries or made sexual approaches. Typically, a person did not respect the others boundaries when making a sexual approach, there was a lack of a mutual understanding. Often with the purpose to mentally break someone and by touching the intimate parts of another without their consent. According to the participants in this study the reasons for people to sexually harass depends on different things and how the victims react varies. It was considered, however, that sexual harassment could happen anywhere and by anyone. When looking at Swedish case-law it seems obvious that the judiciary does not have an all too easy task. One may spectacle whether this might be due to that the boundaries of sexual harassment is unclear as it as borders to sexual interest/attention and is a rather common phenomenon in society.